Timeline for How should "deceptively" actually be used?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
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| May 12, 2011 at 20:18 | comment | added | Matthew Read | "He looks deceptively strong" means he's weaker than he looks. You're saying "He looks, in some fashion, strong", i.e. that he looks strong. The particular fashion in which he looks is deceptive, i.e. he isn't actually strong like he appears. "He is deceptively strong" is the right way to say he's stronger than he looks. | |
| May 12, 2011 at 15:25 | comment | added | Ed Guiness | @Unreason I've rolled back my edit. My edit was made in response to your point about mixing viewpoints. But having thought about it some more, the wrestler does not actually need to be deceived to perceive the deception. There is no need to involve a third party. The wrestler could reasonably observe both and hence make the statement without any implied reference to deceived third party. | |
| May 12, 2011 at 15:22 | history | rollback | Ed Guiness |
Rollback to Revision 1
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| May 12, 2011 at 15:07 | comment | added | Unreason | @Ed Guiness, my point exactly, if you mix two subjective opposite points ('...To this pro-wrestler the skinny person appears strong, precisely because to the average non-wrestler they would appear weak') I don't think you have a good example. (In length: Wrestler talking to me would say: 'To you this skinny wrestler appears weak. That is a deception. He is strong. He is deceptively X.' (The context here is so strong that I feel that both strong and weak would fit and would be understood). | |
| May 12, 2011 at 13:43 | history | edited | Ed Guiness | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 21 characters in body
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| May 12, 2011 at 13:42 | comment | added | Ed Guiness | @Unreason The wrestler is the one mixing viewpoints, I'm just positing a scenario in which this (apparently mixed) viewpoint might lead to the sentence in question. | |
| May 12, 2011 at 13:29 | comment | added | MrHen | It took me a while to "get" your last two paragraphs, but yeah that makes sense. In a sense, the person appears to be potentially deceiving? +1 | |
| May 12, 2011 at 13:25 | comment | added | Unreason | I think your wrestler example is flawed or needs clarification: pro-wrestler already perceives the skinny guy as strong. This is not deceptive to him. He would use 'deceptively' only if he was talking to audience for which he would believe that would normally be deceived. But to them the wrestler does not look strong. What I mean is - he would either say 'He looks deceptively weak (to you non-wrestlers).' or 'He (actually is) deceptively strong.' In your example you are mixing two viewpoints. | |
| May 12, 2011 at 12:27 | history | answered | Ed Guiness | CC BY-SA 3.0 |